A drinking water method for seven pesticides and pesticide degradates was developed that addresses the occurrence monitoring needs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a future Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Regulation (UCMR). The method employs on-line solid phase extraction-liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (SPE-LC/MS/MS). On-line SPE-LC/MS/MS has the potential to offer cost-effective, faster, more sensitive, and more rugged methods than the traditional off-line SPE approach due to complete automation of the SPE process, as well as seamless integration with the LC/MS/MS system. Multi-laboratory data are presented that demonstrate method ruggedness and transferability. The final method meets all of the EPA’s UCMR survey requirements for sample collection and storage, precision, accuracy, and sensitivity. This dataset is associated with the following publication: Shoemaker , J. Development and Multi-laboratory Verification of US EPA Method 543 for the Analysis of Drinking Water Contaminants by Online Solid Phase Extraction-LC–MS-MS. Journal of Chromatographic Science. Preston Publications Incorporated, Niles, IL, USA, 54(9): 1532-1539, (2016).

EPA uses the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring (UCM) program to collect data for contaminants suspected to be present in drinking water, but that do not have health-based standards set under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Every five years EPA reviews the list of contaminants, largely based on the Contaminant Candidate List.

Advanced testing methods now allow pesticides to be detected in water at very low levels. These small amounts of pesticides detected in drinking water or source water for drinking water do not necessarily indicate a health risk. The EPA has developed human health benchmarks for 363 pesticides to enable our partners to better determine whether the detection of a pesticide in drinking water or source waters for drinking water may indicate a potential health risk and to help them prioritize monitoring efforts. The table below includes benchmarks for acute (one-day) and chronic (lifetime) exposures for the most sensitive populations from exposure to pesticides that may be found in surface or ground water sources of drinking water. The table also includes benchmarks for 40 pesticides in drinking water that have the potential for cancer risk. The HHBP table includes pesticide active ingredients for which Health Advisories or enforceable National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (e.g., maximum contaminant levels) have not been developed.

Advanced testing methods now allow pesticides to be detected in water at very low levels. These small amounts of pesticides detected in drinking water or source water for drinking water do not necessarily indicate a health risk. The EPA has developed human health benchmarks for 363 pesticides to enable our partners to better determine whether the detection of a pesticide in drinking water or source waters for drinking water may indicate a potential health risk and to help them prioritize monitoring efforts. The table below includes benchmarks for acute (one-day) and chronic (lifetime) exposures for the most sensitive populations from exposure to pesticides that may be found in surface or ground water sources of drinking water. The table also includes benchmarks for 40 pesticides in drinking water that have the potential for cancer risk. The HHBP table includes pesticide active ingredients for which Health Advisories or enforceable National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (e.g., maximum contaminant levels) have not been developed.

In December 2016, EPA announced the review results for the Agency’s third Six-Year Review (called Six-Year Review 3). EPA analyzed compliance monitoring data for the Six-Year Review 3 using data provided by states/primacy agencies through the Information Collection Request (ICR) for Six-Year Review 3 covering January 2006 through December 2011. Each zip file contains data for multiple contaminants and related information that can be unzipped into tab delimited text files. The number of records and associated systems in the data files and the size of the files range considerably from contaminant to contaminant, which may be attributed to many factors such as the applicability of monitoring requirements, the required sampling frequency and results from quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) measures. A detailed description of the data fields and their definitions, notes about the data, and instructions for downloading and importing datasets into software applications such as Excel can be found in the User Guide. Citation information for this dataset can be found in Data.gov's References section.

In December 2016, EPA announced the review results for the Agency’s third Six-Year Review (called Six-Year Review 3). EPA analyzed compliance monitoring data for the Six-Year Review 3 using data provided by states/primacy agencies through the Information Collection Request (ICR) for Six-Year Review 3 covering January 2006 through December 2011. Each zip file contains data for multiple contaminants and related information that can be unzipped into tab delimited text files. The number of records and associated systems in the data files and the size of the files range considerably from contaminant to contaminant, which may be attributed to many factors such as the applicability of monitoring requirements, the required sampling frequency and results from quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) measures. A detailed description of the data fields and their definitions, notes about the data, and instructions for downloading and importing datasets into software applications such as Excel can be found in the User Guide. Citation information for this dataset can be found in Data.gov's References section.

The third Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 3), conducted under EPA oversight, was published in the Federal Register on May 2, 2012. UCMR 3 requires monitoring for 30 contaminants: 28 chemicals and 2 viruses.